International House of Pancakes is suing a Missouri-based religious group for trademark infringement, according to Bloomberg News.
From the article:
The International House of Prayer of Kansas City and affiliated churches in California are accused of infringing the pancake chain’s “IHOP” trademarks. The restaurant group has used the “IHOP” acronym since 1973 and has six registered trademarks containing “IHOP,” according to the complaint filed Sept. 3 in federal court in Los Angeles.
The church, which broadcasts services live across the Internet, is accused of infringing the mark by referring to itself as IHOP-KC, through its IHOP University Bible school, its signage, and its presence on Facebook Inc.’s social media site, according to the complaint. The church, which used www.ihop.org as its website address, also operates a coffee shop that serves food and beverage at its Kansas City facility, according to court papers.
The church’s use of the IHOP mark causes great and irreparable injury” and confuses the public, the pancake chain said in its pleadings.
You can read more about this in Monday’s Missouri Lawyers Media publications.
September 14th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Well, it finally happened. After… how many years?… of using the acronym, the pancake house lawyers have decided that the public cannot differentiate between pancakes and prayer. Maybe that’s because the lawyers don’t understand the difference themselves, since MONEY is their god (NO caps for this little god!). Get a life, fellas, a real life. Climb out of your ivory towers, go to a real church, and ask HIM what the right thing to do is.
Who put the bee in your bonnet anyway? Ten years seems a long time to wait, or are you just now finding out? Sheesh!